Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Actually, here in the Pacific NW, we are having both sunshine and rain and many times in the same day.

This cute digital image is by Crafty Sentiments who is the sponsor for the Die Cut Diva's Challenge which is "Change of Weather." He is colored with pencils and the umbrella is paper pieced with a piece of OLD designer paper.
The sentiment and clouds are by Diane's Daydream Designs.
As you can see, I used a Spellbinders Die set cutting out three layers. The back orange layer is glued to a piece of cardstock that measures 3 1/4 x 4 1/4 when folded.

The inside image and sentiment are by Diane's Daydream Designs.
The challenge at the Die Cut Divas only runs til Oct. 31 so hurry with your entry.

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Don't you get tired of junk mail in your mailboxes? But sometimes there are stickers or return address labels that are cute enough to use. Last week there was a sheet of stickers that I was going to keep and let the youngest grandchildren use them but then I decided they were cute enough and just the right size to use for a card with the sketch at MFT.

Here is the sketch:

See? Perfect for the stickers. After placing them on white cardstock, I added a sentiment and icicles cut with a die. The blue snowflake is cut with a die and then Stickles were added for sparkle. The twine is from the Kraft Outlet.

Monday, October 27, 2014

The new challenge at the Kraft Journal is Ugly Paper. There is some of that in my huge stash of papers. And some papers aren't necessarily ugly, just not my style or difficult for me to use. For this card I chose a paper that has been sitting in the pile for many years. I don't like it as a sheet but thought maybe it could be used for something besides a layer.

It has been a long time since I did any tea bag folding but the print design of this paper made it a good choice. After finishing the medallion, I attached it to a decorative square made from Buff Ivory cardstock and cut with a Spellbinders die. The sentiment is stamped on the same Buff Ivory cardstock. A few loops of green Natural Hemp Cord were glued behind the medallion and used for attaching the button in the center.
The bow is a die. I was able to center the design before cutting so it was symmetrical when I put it together.
So I think I accomplished what I set out to do - to turn something ugly into beautiful. What do you think?

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

This is my first week for Watch Us Wednesday at the Kraft Journal and I'm pretty excited about that. This week we want to introduce you to the Grungy Tags. I am really having fun with these tags and there are five different tags to choose from. This card uses a Scalloped Grungy Prim tag. I love these stained tags. They look like tea stained.

The layers are SU Garden Green, the Kraft Outlet Lunch Bag Kraft, and a piece of patterned paper from Heartfelt Creations.
Using a brown ink, I stamped "adore" and cut "you" with a MFT die from the Lunch Bag Kraft.
The flower is made out of kraft wrapping paper - really! The vine is cut with a MFT die.
I hope this inspires you to use these beautiful tags.
Thanks for looking.

Monday, October 20, 2014

My shelves are lined with photo albums. My computer is full of photos. I enjoy going back through past years and yet it makes me sad at the same time to see all those cute babies and realize how fast time flies. All my children are grown and now my grandchildren are growing up way too fast. I have to be careful what images and sentiments I use on cards that I send to my grandkids because most of them are out of the baby, toddler stage. But this sentiment I may use for a few more years because I actually use it when talking to my grandkids.

This cute wagon full of pumpkins is a pre-colored digital image by Doodle Pantry and there are several sentiments that come with this set.

In making my card, I used Buff cardstock ,a grunge tag, and twine from Kraft Outlet, patterned paper from the Doodle Pantry set, Pumpkin Pie cardstock from SU. The leaves are cut out with my Silhouette and the leave button is from my stash.
BTW, there are a few more days to enter a card in the Doodle Pantry Digital Challenge.

Friday, October 17, 2014

Last week I showed you a small photo album that I was going to send to my daughter and grandchildren. This is the card that will accompany it.

Here is the inside of the card:

These are pre-colored images in Diane's Daydream Designs set, Signs of Fall, the same set I used for the album.
For the front of the card, I superimposed the sentiment onto the quilt. A few leaves are popped up with dimensionals and I added some wire tendrils on the top of the pumpkin.
For the inside I added the sentiment before printing the pre-colored scene. With the panel being square, it left room for me to add a note and my signature.

Monday, October 13, 2014

I colored his hair but his shirt, shorts, shoes, and flower are paper pieced. The challenge at Die Cut Divas is "Change of Weather". The weather in my area is changing but taking a long time (thank goodness, although I love Autumn) to change into our normal Autumn weather. It is usually quite chilly by now but it is staying warm enough that I am still wearing capris and T-shirts part of the day so I thought Henry could too. A flower in October? Yes, we still have some flowers in bloom. In fact, I cut about a dozen roses this evening to bring into the house. But we have beautiful leaves on the trees (and on the grass).
The image panel and the red backing panel are cut with a MFT die. The leaves are punched.
I hope you will join the challenge at Die Cut Divas.

The challenge at the Kraft Journal this week is glitter. Glitter is a product I never use but that doesn't mean my cards don't sparkle. There are other ways to achieve the look of glitter and I think I captured that with this card.

The card base is SU Early Espresso. The sentiment (Ginger's House) and the pre-colored pumpkins (Doodle Pantry) were printed on the Kraft Outlet Buff Ivory cardstock panel.
The beautiful copper (not gold!)glitter embossed ribbon is a piece of wire ribbon from my recycle stash. And the Butter Bias Tape, green Hemp cord, and the brown Earthy Hemp Cord are from the Kraft Outlet.
Can you see the little bit of Stickles I added to the leaves and blossoms? The final little touch was to pierce a scroll in two corners to match the scroll in the copper ribbon.The Kraft Journal would love to have you come play along in the challenge, All That Glitters.

Friday, October 10, 2014

It has been quite a busy week with a daughter and two grandchildren visiting from out of state. Yesterday we joined up with another daughter and four of her children and went to the pumpkin patch.
I thought it would be fun to make a little photo album of the day.

Using a Fall set by Diane's Daydream Designs, I printed the pre-colored Pumpkin Patch scene then cut it out with a Spellbinder, framing it with a brown cut out. The "album cover is SU Brick cardstock , scoring a fold and punching holes for the twine. I added a few leaf buttons with more twine.
Here is a picture of the inside:

Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Another card using the beautiful Vintage Camera pre-colored digi by Doodle Pantry.

To go with the vintage look, I used brown Kraft cardstock and a dictionary page from Kraft Outlet and lace and seam binding ribbon from my stash. I tore and distressed a piece of the patterned paper that comes with the set. To place the digital sentiment of "smile" onto the antique label, I chose the size I wanted to print, printed on plain paper and then positioned the label over the sentiment on the paper. Running it back through the printer again printed the sentiment on the label right where I wanted it.

Monday, October 6, 2014

The Kraft Journal has a challenge beginning today - No Patterned Paper.
This is definitely a challenge because I use patterned paper on almost all my cards.

The main panel is Buff Ivory Cardstock. This is beautiful cardstock that has a bit on texture that looks like linen. I embossed the flowers with the Cuttlebug embossing folder, With Love" adding a piece of Leaves and Birds Washi tape between the two rows of flowers. After I put the Happy Birthday sticker on the Small Grungy Prim Tag, I attached it with a piece of green cord from the Dark Jewel Hemp Cord collection. The flower and button (yes, a real one this time!) is from my stash. The leaves were cut with a Cuttlebug die. The final touch was the distressing the edges of the Buff Ivory Cardstock with Tim Holz distressing ink and then gluing it to SU Green Garden.
Hope you like it and hope you will play along with the No Patterned Paper Challenge at the Kraft Journal.

Friday, October 3, 2014

Once a theme makes its way into my mind, I end up making several cards in that same theme. Sew, here is another card with the sewing theme. These images and papers by Diane's Daydream Designs are sew beautiful, I just had to use them again.

You can find the images, papers, and some sentiments at Diane's Daydream Designs. Check out the other sewing/quilting digital sets here.
This card has several fun elements: The measure tape twill tape is by Kraft Outlet. The row of buttons is a MFT die and the twine (my favorite) used to sew the strip onto the card is by Kraft Outlet. I love this hand stained bias tape ribbon because of the brown stains that mix with the blue.

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

So far this Fall (albeit early yet) we have only had a few days of rain in this part of the country. We had such a beautiful, dry summer and Fall so far, we are being lulled into belief that it will stay this way. Haha ! Reality check - the rains are coming.
Here is a card depicting Fall. The new challenge for the month of October at Die Cut Diva's Challenge is "Change of Weather." The team is using digital images by Crafty Sentiments, our sponsor this month.

Flopsy is colored with Prisma pencils. The "fall" is Close to the Heart stamped with a Spectrum ink pad. The large leaf is cut out with a Cuttlebug die. The small leaves are punched. The image panel and layer are cut with MFT rectangular dies. Card base is SU Baked Brown Sugar.

Die Cut Divas would love to have you take the challenge to make a card depicting change of weather.

October is here and so is another wonder release at DOODLE PANTRY. Among all the wonderful sets is this Vintage Camera.

Love the papers that come with the images and so many sentiments too. The base is SU Baked Brown Sugar. Such an odd color but I am amazed at how many times I am using it lately. The two patterned papers are Doodle Pantry. Here is a pic of some of the images, etc. that you receive in the set:

About Me

I have three main passions: my relationship with Jesus Christ, my family, and making cards. I am so blessed with a husband, six children, their spouses, and 12 grandchildren. I do make a fair amount of cards for them. I also love to photograph some of the gorgeous things God has created and blessed us with, so I will occasionally share some of those shots with you.
I hope you will enjoy what you see and through this blog may your day be blessed and glory be given to our wonderful God.